The Scars of Love
by Daxion
Summary: In some corner of the asteroid, there occurs an irregular scene between two non entirely comparable individuals. And yet it occurs nonetheless. Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worst, Zuriik Taroql has his virginity stolen from him by an unexpected person of rather thiefly persuasion. And is completely changed because of it. OC x Nepeta OC x Vriska
1. Chapter 1

Well...this is my first fanfiction to be posted in years. So, yeah, I don't know really much else to say except give a setting. This takes place on the trolls' asteroid, although slightly different. It is now inhabited as well by four more trolls, all OCs. Two belonging to me and the other two belonging to a friend of mine. The one who is the focus of this fanfic is Zuriik Taroql. A blackblood. Which may automatically turn some people off, but please don't leave just because of that. Oh, and trigger warnings are as follows: #OCxCanon #GraphicPailing #NonConsensualPailing #SortaLightBondage  
That's about it. So, without further ado, The Scars of Love, Chapter One:

Zuriik shifted slightly against his bonds, the rope around his hands irritating his skin, bruising his wrists a slightly darker shade of grey. How had he gotten into this situation, he wondered; how was he now blindfolded, arms and legs tied together, leaned against the cold metal wall of who- knows-where? Oh, right. Nepeta. Well, maybe not directly. But if he hadn't been daydreaming about his unattainable flush crush in the hallway, whoever had kidnapped him wouldn't have been able to sneak up on him as they did. But his mind was distracted, his survival instincts dulled and his captor had been able to get close enough to blindfold Zuriik. The sudden lack of vision startled and confused the black blood enough for the other person to tie his wrists together behind his back and somehow do the same to his ankles. Then practically drag the still quite confused Zuriik into a room somewhere - he had no idea of its location, either general or specific - and leave him there alone for who knows how long. He had begun to loose track of time. The door opened then, Zuriik snapping back to attention. His instincts continued to scream at him, tell him to escape, to be free. But...his mind fought back. Maybe...just maybe...it could be her. The creature of his affections. The likelihood was low, but it was still possible. So he pushed back his instincts, concentrating on listening. He heard the door close again, feeling the presence of someone there. Was it Nepeta? Or another? They walked forward, footsteps making barely any sound on the metal floor; were they barefoot or just treading lightly? Feminine? Familiar? Feline? Zuriik couldn't tell. He just stared into the darkness of his blindfold in the general direction of the other in the room and waited in silent anxious anticipation.

Whoever the person was, they crouched down in front of him, close enough that he could feel their quiet breath flying through the air and landing on his face. He squirmed again, and they let out a little sort of familiar giggle. He froze. Who the fuck was it? The laugh had sounded like hers, but the inflections were off somewhat. Different, but similar. His mind raced, comparing what he remembered to what he had just heard. He couldn't tell if he imagined the difference, or even if he imagined the similarity.

"Hello there Purriik." she whispered to him, her voice quiet and fluctuating, playful and feline in tone. His hesitations were partially laid to rest by her voice, the sound of her words confirming Zuriik's suspicions.

"Nepeta?" he inquired, already fairly sure of the answer but still deciding to be safer than sorrier.

She giggled again, the noise sending a shiver of some cold feeling up Zuriik's spine. "Of course it's me silly. Who else would it be?"

The male troll shrugged, or did the best he could considering his situation. "I...don't know. But, why exactly am I tied up?"

She pressed a finger to his lips with a quiet "shush fur now", the touch of her hand leaving a tingling imprint on his skin, his heart fluttering in his chest. Zuriik nodded, not saying another word. He could hear Nepeta move around a little bit, shifting...onto her stomach, he thought. At least, that's what it sounded like. And there had been a quiet 'clink' that confused him. The darkness of the blindfold felt compressing, suffocating, he wanted to see the girl he was in love with. Become witness to her beauty. But there must have been a reason for her to block off his vision.

His breath caught in his throat as he felt a finger touch his leg, drawing a little abstract shape into the fabric of his pants. He just sat there, silent, swallowing hard once to calm his nerves. And then her finger traveled upwards, at the rate of an inch every couple of seconds. It moved quite close to his crotch, much too close for comfort, but then it thankfully continued its path up and away, much to Zuriik's relief. Nepeta's finger trail passed the button on his pants, and then stopped rather suddenly. It doubled back and looped, tracing a circle around the button.

He shifted slightly in nervous anxiety, and she let out a quiet hiss which stopped him in his tracks. Trying not to move much for fear of upsetting Nepeta, he continued to wait for her next move. Which she made, descending the other digits of her hand to meet the pointer finger that was already at his button, and the five of them worked together to push the tiny circle of metal through the hole in the fabric, then shifting downward a small amount, grasping hold of Zuriik's zipper. He had no idea what to think. The words 'what' and 'the' and 'fuck' and 'why' all ran through his mind in random order. To say he was confused would be an understatement.

Nepeta pulled the zipper downward as far as it could go, and then hooked her fingers into his waistline and yanked suddenly. His pants flew off, and Zuriik yelped, shivering at his legs's sudden exposure to the cold-ish air. Underneath his pants - which had now been stripped off and cast aside - he wore a pair of plain black boxer shorts, which it quickly seemed like she wanted to remove as well. She touched the elastic of his underwear, Zuriik breathing hard and nervously.

"N-nepeta..." he stammered, staring at the fabric of the blindfold, trying to see through it at her. "What are-" She cut him off rather suddenly, by pressing something again to his mouth. But it was softer than her finger, and Zuriik was confused until he realized what it was, detecting the soft contours of her lips. His cheeks, already flushed with black blood, descended twenty shades into a much darker grey. Nepeta was kissing him, the thought permeated through his stunned mind. She pulled away, a ghostly memory of her kiss still remaining across his mouth. Zuriik licked his lips, trying to recover some taste from the connection, and she released a giggle at his action. She was wearing lipstick, he deciphered, and a bit of it had rubbed off on him. It tasted fresh, sharp and minty, like forest air. He loved it. Zuriik grinned, feeling his heart make little backflips, and not moving when Nepeta's hand returned to its previous position. She shed him of his boxers, revealing his limp bulge to her. She let out a little purring sound, most likely examining the male genitalia that lay in front of her. Zuriik wasn't entirely confident of his own manhood, not that he had much to compare it to anyway. "Sorry." he mumbled, a little bit ashamed of his own assumedly undersized bulge. Nepeta released a small sigh, one finger quite suddenly moving to rest almost teasingly on his sensitive tip. Zuriik felt a quite sublime shiver run through him, all feelings of venerability or weakness fading practically instantly at her touch. "It's purrfect." she whispered to him, reassuring, yet with a hint of what sounded rather like...hunger. Lust, Zuriik realized. Maybe.

Either way, one finger turned into five, lightly grasping onto the very top of his slowly awakening bulge. He let out a soft whimper, stretching out his legs subconsciously, clenching his toes. Once again, came the quiet mirthful purr that was Nepeta's giggle. Then her hand began to move. She let gravity pull it down, using friction to stimulate the nerves that ran along Zuriik's bulge, then stopped when she could descend her hand no further. Then it moved back up again, slightly faster, letting her hand encompass the tip of his bulge before halting once again. He was not quiet at all during this encounter, making little pleased and slightly uncomfortable sounds, squirming and sweating as her hand ran up and down his length. Nepeta pumped up and down, picking up speed, although steadily, taking her time to stimulate him, Zuriik's brain shifting into feral malfunction at this new and pleasurable experience.

"N-n-nepeta." he moaned, shuddering violently with a fusion of venerability and affectionate acceptance. He couldn't tell whether this was the greatest thing he had ever felt, or just he most uncomfortable, or perhaps it was both. Her hand squeezed quite suddenly, and Zuriik let out a little yelp of pleasure, panting, his hot breath flying through the space between them. It went on like this for a while, until he could feel a pressure building in his loins. Unfamiliar, but amazing. "N-nepeta. I'm c-close." he half-whispered half-moaned. And then whimpered quite pathetically when her hand stopped moving and let go, five fingers now replaced by one teasingly touching the tip of his bulge. He almost whined, shifting his hips upward, trying to get back some of the pleasure previously felt, a little - well actually very - disappointed that she was preventing him from reaching his climax.

Nepeta clucked her tongue, and he could almost hear the playful smile in her purring voice. "Ah ah ah Purriik, not so fast. Furst, you need to make a little choice. Either I let you finish, and then I leave, or..." She let the pause extend, likely to increase the dramatic tension. "You make me cum, and then I stay. And maybe, if you do a purrfectly good job...I'll give you a little reward. So. You or me?"

"You." he whispered hoarsely, without a moment of hesitation, his cheeks still darkly flushed with shy black blood. What mattered to Zuriik was her, her safety, her happiness...her pleasure, as well. So it was the obvious choice to please Nepeta, to pleasure Nepeta, to do to her everything that she wished of him. He didn't care about his own release at all in comparison; though the offer was tempting, he knew it would be terrible to just get pleasured by her and then be alone in the room. And besides...she had said stay. Perhaps that meant that there was some future for them as matesprits, if he did a good job. And if he did as well, she said a reward might follow. Which was more than enough of a encouragement to do good, even if he hadn't already wanted to do so simply because he was in love with her. Either way, he would hold nothing back.

She giggled, leaning in and kissing him on the tip of the dark grey nose. "Okay Purriik, so how about you lick my little pussy?" It wasn't a question, he could tell, so Zuriik didn't respond with more than an unnecessary nod. But he knew she didn't notice, for as soon as his head moved to affirm, she had already grabbed him by the collar of the shirt and lay him down, with gentle passionate roughness. 'She's rather excited to do this', he thought before hearing a quiet sound of metal on metal that disrupted his mental pondering. What it was, he had no fucking clue. But the metallic clang was soon distracted by another sound, the noise of fabric rustling and being tossed to the side, making a soft thump on the nearby ground. Then Nepeta came close again, sitting on Zuriik's chest. He looked up at her, or at least looked in her direction, and then her hands went to her crotch. He could feel through his shirt that she moved both her legs, placing her feet next to his head on either side. She pulled something from between her legs and let it drag across them, bending over slightly to let it go completely to the end of her feet, slipping out of whatever it was. Her panties, Zuriik realized, she had just taken off her panties. Which she also tossed to the side, scooting up slightly on his chest, her crotch fairly teasingly close to his face. He lifted his head up, suddenly getting hit in the face by a musky scent, quite strongly emanating from Nepeta's nethers. It smelled...wow, it smelled really good. Like a berry of some sort, a piece of fresh fruit that had been broken open right under his nose. Sweet as hell. He stuck his tongue out, stretching the organ to try and see if he could reach the source of the smell, which he was sadly unable to. She shook with laughter, obviously finding his enthusiasm either hilarious or charming, he of course hoped the latter.

"You are quite the eager little Purriik, aren't you?" Nepeta asked, and at the same time proving herself just as eager as he was by grabbing hold of his head with one hand and moving forward the last couple of inches to shove Zuriik's face into her nook. Of course, he was surprised, and he paused for a moment while his nose was filled with the strong scent of arousal. But he didn't hesitate long, sticking his tongue out again, this time sending it into her without really realizing it; Nepeta letting out a little shriek of sudden ecstasy, pulling him a tiny bit closer, the folds of her nook digging into his face. Zuriik just blinked beneath the blindfold, then spasmed his tongue upwards, hitting the top of her inner walls. She reacted immediately, whining and pushing harder against him. He grinned into Nepeta's nook, suddenly feeling like they were playing a game of sorts. He would move his tongue in funny and clever ways and she would let out another one of those amazing cries that rang in his ears and tugged at his heartstrings. The game was on, and Zuriik wasted no time delivering pleasure that would elicit such cries, digging in and licking at her, then playfully raspberrying against the sensitive tissue. Nepeta shrieked in delight, grinding against his face as he lapped at her pailing regions. Her slit was soon sopping with fluid, an added bonus, which Zuriik lapped up and let trickle down his throat. Everything about this was wonderful, he was making the girl of his dreams happy, she was making the most lovely and adorable of noises, and he was currently being treated to an organic orgasmic delicacy of naturally unbeatable flavor. Nepeta let out a long gasping moan, the fingers of her left hand digging into his scalp. "Zuriik!" she both yelped and purred at the same time.

The troll felt his black heart swell in his chest at that, continuing to lick happily. She had cried out his name in pleasure, /his/ name, his /name/. And he felt amazing, grinning widely as he attacked her nook with his tongue, attempting to tickle every last nerve in the erogenous area. Fuck, even if this was a one night stand, he had definitely done his very best to please her. That was all he really could do anyway. And then he felt the dripping fluid become a torrent as she came, hard, drenching his face with her essence. He continued to lap at her, grabbing every last drop of the sweet liquid that he could, dripping down his throat like honey. The fluid soaked into the blindfold, and it shifted because of that fact - and because of the intensify with which Nepeta his riding his face - the wet fabric acting differently than its dry counterpart. Zuriik's eyes were now granted permission to see again. And his tongue froze, his eyes staring at the one thing that was close enough to his face to focus on. Her nook, staring back at him like a blue flower.

Blue. The color struck him as odd, then awareness pierced suddenly through the haze of oral pailing. Blue. Her nook was blue. The fluid that dripped from it, blue. And he shifted his head to look up at his captor. She let out a long satisfied exhalation, and then looked down at Zuriik. Vriska, her one good eye shining with excited cobalt. Vriska, a smile on her face. Vriska, whom he had just pleasured to the point of her orgasming. He felt something inside him at this betrayal of the most sublime, though he couldn't tell exactly what it was. And then his emotions caught up with him. Anger first and mostly. He wanted to scream, to shout and struggle and snarl. She had tied him up and thrown him against the wall, then committed sinful acts without his permission. Vriska had practically raped him. And worst of all, she had managed to trick him into thinking she was Nepeta the entire time. Quite well too, fucking brilliantly, perfectly disguising herself as the olive-blood. But her true color showed through now, and everything fell into place. The fact that she had only used her left arm, seeing as how her right was made of metal, which also explained the occasional small click or clank that sounded when she moved. And her voice had been off slightly, he was just too fucking stupid to pay it much attention. Zuriik was livid, furious, paralyzed. He couldn't move, not just because of his bonds, and she hadn't even utilized a single bit of her psychic power. He just couldn't move. He just sat there, his mouth half-open, eyes wide and full of intermixed negative emotion, staring into hers with an expression indicative of one who had been betrayed. Only a minute before, he could have sworn that his heart had beat with pulses of green, being this close and intimate with his flush-crush. But now there existed something different. A gash, a cobalt scar razed down the inside of his chest, cleaving his heart in two with one swift motion. Vriska had shattered Zuriik into pieces, she had hurt him more badly than he had felt previously. He felt caliginous bile rising up into the back of his throat, the sloshing blue liquid inside him that had been so sweet and syrupy going down now felt like poison. The only word Zuriik could of, the one concrete thought that ran through his head, was 'why?' Why had she done it, why him and why her, why did it have to be like this? The forced intimacy was bad enough. But that he had imagined it was Nepeta? It had turned in his eyes from passion to pain. This wasn't sex. This was torture.

Vriska reached down and pulled the blindfold back over his eyes, then leaned down until her lips brushed against his ear. "So the cat's out of the bag then, huh?" she whispered, using her real voice instead of Nepeta's. Vriska sounded...off, he noticed but didn't care, not triumphant like one might have thought. Peaceful, yes. Probably a little bit woozy from the post-ejaculatory hormones. But no sneer was present in her tone, no teasing or mocking. Just calm.

"Fuck you." Zuriik snarled back, eyes stinging under the soaked fabric, consumed utterly by hatred and lamenting sadness.

She sighed quietly, her cool breath cascading over his earlobe and causing him to shiver again. "We're still not done yet though. Remember, I said I would reward you if you did a good job. And you certainly did an amazing job. So it's my turn to return the favor." She moved away from him only slightly, placing her left hand on his shoulder and her right on the wall as she adjusted herself.

Zuriik started when he figured out what she was trying to do. "No." he choked out, squirming against his bonds with renewed vigor. "Fuck...no."

And then she did something he didn't expect. Vriska leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, Zuriik letting out a small squeaking "mph" into the kiss. He could feel the shape of her lips pulled into a smile, something that was almost a smirk but just softer than one. When she broke it, he just sat there, unmoving and completely angry. She wanted to have take both his first kiss and his virginity?

"Spiderbitch." he mumbled, shivering slightly as he felt tiny sobs wrack his body, undetectable and accompanied by a whimpering noise in the back of his throat. But Vriska either didn't hear him or didn't care, as she reached down and grabbed his bulge with her organic hand, positioning it below her. Unsatisfied with Zuriik's half-limp state, she pumped her hand down along his length and then back up again, squeezing rather hard. It was enough, his body either giving up or betraying him, heart to damaged to fight back, mind confused and torn, his very soul seeming dangerously ambivalent. He was erect for her, and that fact shot through his mind, bullet-like and painful, as Vriska sat on his bulge, impaling herself like a martyr on a sword. He wished, as she began to move with his bulge still deep inside her, that it was a blade that had entered her, and not any pleasurable extension of himself. She began to make the ecstatic noises of pailing again, quiet at first, then louder, and Zuriik wished that she would just shut up. But he himself was beginning to let the pleasure overtake him, letting out shuddering gasps and shivering moans. He loathed himself for submitting beyond any capacity for rational thought, his anger blinding him to logic and emotion, just sweeping him up in a black wave of hatred. And Vriska continued to pail him, his hands wrenching violently behind his back at the rope that constrained them. Then, much to his surprise, in mid reverse-thrust, she bent down and placed her lips close to his ear, kissing his dark grey lobe lightly and whispering a lilted "Zuriik." that froze his blood in his veins. He stopped moving, the sound of her quiet voice paralyzingly him better than her psychic power ever could. Zuriik shuddered out a sob, hanging his head in shame. And his mouth continued to move, his breath continued to to draw out of him sounds that he was sure encouraged her, contradicting his own desires for that experience - to course wanting nothing more than to end this sublime torture and get out of his bonds. Yet, the ultimate betrayal was yet to be had, as his bulge was grabbed in the tight grip of Vriska's nook. The soft 'n' of "Nepeta" became the sharp 'vr' of "Vriska", her name dancing like hot coals across his tongue. He spat out the name into the world with a moan, hatefully, softly, caliginously, lovingly. No. He did loathe her, absolutely, he hated Vriska for putting him through this shit. But it wasn't caliginous. Zuriik couldn't feel that kind of black sexual attraction, the violent anger of dark hatred wasn't present in that way. And then his heart committed the greatest act of self-treason he had ever known. It began to beat again, softly and affectionately, but the color was not green, it did not strain towards the olive shade he desired to adore. It was blue. And he felt dead inside at the revelation, as Vriska rode him into the ground, burying him beneath tons of pleasure and digging a grave with her movements, killing him softly. The pressure built again, higher and farther than he could have ever imagined, and with a final cry of "Vriska!" that simultaneously drove a sharp pain through his chest, his bulge twitched, shooting forth streams of black genofluid, spewing forth his reluctant seed into her. Vriska rose once, then slammed down on him, hilting his length in her nook and letting out one last shriek of "Zuriik!" before orgasming and collapsing, falling onto his chest, her nude body pressed against his. He said nothing, nor did she, just continued to breathe shallowly until their hearts - too close to each other in Zuriik's opinion - beat with regular tempo again. Time moved slowly on, the afterglow like sharp nails dragged across his patience. Finally, she stirred.

"Well." she murmured, her tone quite pleased indeed. "That certainly was a wonderful experience." He heard her, not reacting, playing dead for all intents and purposes, wishing with all his being that she would just go and leave him alone. Perhaps Vriska heard his wish, because she placed a hand on his chest and pushed off of him, standing up rather shakily, he could hear her stumble slightly. She bent down next to Zuriik, once again whispering in his ear. "That was very fun. You are quite the good pail. Perhaps we could do this again sometime." Again, it wasn't a question, he realized that with a little tingle of horror. But she just laughed, standing back up again and pulling back on her clothes. He waited, not able to do anything else. He heard Vriska turn to go, then stop, pause, hesitate, and walk back over to him. She crouched down and lifted him off of the ground by the collar, placing him surprise got gently, and pressing a kiss to his lips. "Ciao Zuriik." she said quietly, then left. He sat there, hands draped and motionless, suddenly realizing that the rope confining them had been untied, likely during the final kiss. But he had no strength to move, Zuriik was completely spent. Covered in sticky black and blue, intermixed and slurried across his crotch, his damp and now limp bulge hanging free, the sweat that covered him evaporating in the cool air and chilling his body. He shivered, then shuddered, then tried to cry. But he couldn't. He didn't have the tears. He was empty, he was frustrated, he had been raped, and used, and tossed aside. His energy was gone. The fight had been dragged out of him and beaten to death with villainous pleasure. It was a long time before he moved again, reaching up to snatch the blindfold away from his eyes. He was met with a dim interior, some room in the asteroid. He didn't know where it was, but fuck it, he didn't care. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, all of his different conflicting emotions just smashing their heads together and bleeding out a mess of apathy that coated him completely in numb removal. It was with robotic unintention that Zuriik dragged himself over to his pants and boxers, pulling them onto himself with difficulty. After that, he had no more reason to move, except to untie his ankles and then drag himself back over to the wall, leaning against it, sitting on the hard floor and closing his eyes. The world of the awake and living held nothing for him then. So he slipped into the land of dreams and death, passing out, his nerves so calm he might as well have been dead, dark dreams chased away by the soft blue scar that had been burned along the inside of his chest, and he wondered if Vriska had given him a curse...or a blessing.


	2. Chapter 2

"Zuriik?" His eyes opened. The wounded black-blood fell quickly into awareness. Not that he cared much, staring up with dead eyes at the concerned face of his moirail.

"Hey Fred." he mumbled back, stumbling to his feet and almost falling again, right into the arms of his best friend.

"Holy shit man, what the fuck happened to you?" Freddy asked him, wrapping the limp arm of Zuriik around his shoulder, supporting him.

The other troll didn't answer, didn't move, and just as Freddy was about to ask again, Zuriik cut him off. "It's a long story Grayson. Just...please help me back to my room. I...I need some time alone. To meditate."

"And take a shower." Freddy mumbled, his friend nodding slightly. The two trolls moved slowly out of the room and into the hallway, and time slipped into oblivion. Either moving too fast or too slow, the world shifted by him in a blur, a one-sided conversation attempting to be struck between the moirails. Freddy asked questions and Zuriik didn't answer them, continuing until the two reached the room of the latter. Support was offered multiple times, each declined by a cold shoulder or a silent shake of the head, the teal-blood finally leaving with an exasperated sigh of concern, Zuriik standing alone in his room.

His eyes traveled over the entirety of his surroundings, seeing but not registering. He didn't move, for a good couple minutes, until he couldn't stand to simply stand anymore. He stepped, walking forward, crossing the room without thinking, kneeling next to and clutching the edge of his recuperacoon. The sleep assisting object was filled a little over halfway with slime, rather old, the normal neon shade having descended in shade to a murky sort of putrid green. As well, considering the asteroid was undergoing a shortage of sopor, Zuriik knew it would be watered down pretty significantly, under orders from Karkat. Not that he would normally care, he didn't even use the 'coon, loathing the slime inside it too much to accept its offered peaceful rest. But now...a whole lot had changed.

He reached his hand in, letting the soothing slime caress his fingers, reminding him all too much of the dual colors of genofluid that so dryly still covered him, soaking into his pores and clogging them, suffocation beneath the aftermath of pleasure. He shifted, staring down at the sopor, and took a breath. Zuriik shoved his head inside the slime bath, taking long gulps and letting the disgusting ooze slide down his throat and into his stomach. Then he pulled back, shoving himself away from the recooperacoon, retching violently, then expunging everything. His stomach was purged of every ounce of anything, a storming flood of black and cobalt carried on a sea of murky green. It washed across the floor, Zuriik holding his sides, doubled over above the mess of conflicting colors.

"Gross." he managed to mumble, wiping his mouth with the back of his arm and letting out a long groan. He stood up, shakily, and walked two steps before collapsing again, falling onto his bed.

He drifted into sleep, moving through consciousness nomadically, dreaming and yet not, his entire being like a raft on a an ocean of numb waters. Time continued to flow on and on, and Zuriik barely registered movement in the room with him, hazy and blurry, the only person who he needed help from but did not want it. His morail moved, accomplishing actions of unspecificity - or at least what he was doing was not clear to Zuriik. Perhaps cleaned up the mess, in fact likely did so, and then Zuriik was moved as well. Here and there, his soul untethered but slowly, inch by inch, getting reeled back in. Water cascaded over his body, washing away the sins of lustful atrocity. Though, the scar remained, he could feel it there, the experience of its aching pain as obvious in color as it was in damage. The cobalt betrayal, the true color burning bright against his soul, internally and eternally grafted onto his being by an act that still seemed impossible. He had not pailed Vriska. But he could not convince himself of that, could not keep lying when the truth, the cold blue truth, lay slashed across his chest for him to see. She had given him a torturous gift that only he was aware of.

Zuriik...was numb. Vriska had not just taken his virginity...she had taken his will. Not to live, but to do. To continue to move through life. She had stolen his Breath, much more than she could ever steal his Light. In fact, she had given him more Light than he could handle, the scar that marked him continuing to remind him of their pailing session and supply the knowledge of how he felt about it. Much to his dismay. He didn't want to feel anything but loathing at what had been done to him, the way he had been tricked and used like a sex toy. And yet...and yet...and yet he had liked it. Loved it. Of course, at first, he had been venerable. But then 'Nepeta' had taken that concern away. And a moment later, Vriska had incurred onto him pleasure of the most sublime. Zuriik wanted that again, he felt like he needed it. But he loathed both the pailing and the instigator enough to push both thoughts out of his head when he could. Though they were never gone forever, they always found a way to slip back in.

He awakened steadily, lying on his bed, feeling clean of body and impure of soul. Zuriik was alone, but he felt a piece of paper crumpled in his hand. He slowly opened the note and read it.  
'Zuriik,  
I'm knot going too ask about what happened too you. I get it, you don't want too talk about it. I'm your moirail, butt I'm knot going too keep pushing you about something that you feel sensitive about. You don't half too talk if you don't feel like it. Butt I'm hear four you man.  
You're bro,  
Freddy'  
He registered the words, then compressed the paper with his hands and threw it at the wall. For no reason other than to show he could, to prove that he wasn't weak, that he, Zuriik Taroql, had some strength left in him. He stood, shakily, on legs not accustom to standing after such a long time of not doing so, and walked to the door. He opened it and returned once again to life.

The computer room was exactly how he remembered it. When Zuriik transportalized inside, he was a tad taken aback with how little things had changed. Nothing much seemed to differ from before the...Serket related incident. He was the only thing that had been altered since that time, as the warm ache in his chest reminded him. Not knowing what to do, he stood there silently and motionless for a moment, then set his eyes on an empty computer, walking over towards it. He passed the horn pile, in which Gamzee and Tavros were 'chilling'.

"Woah, look Tavbro, it's Zuriik. Hey buddy, where've you been motherfucker?" inquired the latter, his projected gritty voice turning a head or two in Zuriik's direction. The black-blood just kept putting one foot in front of the other slowly, shrugging and letting out a hum of bothered apathy. He didn't want to deal with the clown, he didn't care too much about Gamzee even before his priorities were totally erased, when his heart was sliced in half by a thief. Whom he noticed, thankfully, wasn't present. Three more steps were taken towards the digital escape before Zuriik was interrupted again, this time by a light tap on the shoulder. He sighed, turning to see who was trying to get his attention. Gamzee and Tavros had returned to their conversation, and Feferi was the one that stood before him, smiling cheerily. "Shello Zuriik!"

He just nodded an acknowledgment, his hands thrust into the pockets of his sweatshirt, his eyes looking down and to the left, not wanting to meet her exuberant gaze. There was an awkward silence, in which she continued to stare at him, as if she was waiting for something. Zuriik soon came to the conclusion that she wanted him to reply with more than just a nod, and he sighed again, giving in to her expectation of manners. "Hello Feferi."

She smiled slightly wider, showing off her teeth that reminded him a little too much of the pearly whites of a carnivorous swimbeast. Feferi reached out and took his wrist, leading a completely uninterested Zuriik over to the side, to the other end of the room than he had intended to go to. There existed there a black mark on the floor in that area, where Aradiabot had self-detonated before Zuriik and his three friends had arrived at the asteroid. Feferi stood him there and grabbed two chairs, pushing him down gently on one and taking a seat on the other. "So, how's life?"

He stared back at her, his eyes clearly sending the message of 'I don't want to talk about it.' But she either didn't notice, didn't care, or just wanted him to tell her anyway. For his good or hers, he didn't know. Feferi might have been completely outward and energetic, but that didn't mean she wasn't good at hiding her inner thoughts and motivations. Even to a troll as practiced in reading people as Zuriik, she remained completely enigmatic to him, unknown and indecipherable. And, as was currently apparent, desiring to speak to him - for whatever reason - to the point where it became rather obnoxious. Feferi continued to stare at him, hands clasped patiently and expectantly in her lap, until Zuriik finally gave up. "Torturous. My life, right now, is beyond terrible. It's...worse than it's ever been before. I'm currently going through an all time low. Life just fucking sucks for me."

"Oh." she quietly said, frowning sympathetically, leaning over and patting Zuriik's shoulder with likely platonic pity. "Why?"

He thought of making some sort of excuse, to say 'no reason' or 'you know, the usual, only worse' or to just not answer at all. But instead, for a reason he himself didn't know, he met her gaze, staring into Feferi's eyes with a dead sort of fierceness. "Vriska raped me."

This time, Zuriik could tell that the reaction was genuine. Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth, staring back at him with horrified shock. Feferi was about to respond when he spoke again, shifting his gaze away. "If you're thinking about telling anyone...don't. Please, don't tell anybody." She shook her head instantly, whispering a quiet "I won't, I promise" to Zuriik. "I'm so so sorry."

He just shrugged, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair. She started to say something else, but stopped, whatever it was, deciding it wasn't worth saying. Feferi reached out and took his hand, squeezing it once, a kind, silent and almost benevolently condescending presence, then stood and left. Zuriik waited for a while, just sitting there, before he made his way back to he intended destination and sat down in front of the computer he had picked out from across the room, still thankfully not taken. He just sort of did nothing, watching some of the humans from the two parallel sessions do their strange human things, then pulling up a quite basic digital game and playing it until he could beat every one of the three levels blindfolded. And the entire time, he felt Feferi making glances at him from where she sat on the other side of the room, concerned and full of platonic pity. Eventually, Zuriik couldn't take her continuous fleeting looks, the knowledge that another knew of his plight, and he left the way he had come; leaving the computer mid-game and letting his avatar perish motionless on the screen as he stood on the transportalizer and dissapearified.

Zuriik walked slowly back to his room, having no reason to hurry, no reason to stay, going because he had no where else to go, nothing else to do. Apathetically, he walked, until someone called his name in a way that made him stop in his tracks. "Purriik!" He froze, tensing, the playful feline inflections bringing back memories of times he would rather forget, anger filling him, whirling around and snarling at her. "What!?"

Nepeta stood behind him, a little surprised by the sudden outburst, blinking and just sort of staring at Zuriik. His anger evaporated like a splash of water dropped into a volcano, and guilt replaced it. He shifted his eyes to the side in a double-entendre of regret - not just because he had snapped at Nepeta, but due mostly to the closed cerulean wound that he felt behind the skin of his chest. "I-I'm sorry." he mumbled, shifting slightly in his shameful embarrassment. "I didn't mean...to yell at you, I'm sorry."

She smiled softly, moving a bit to the left and leaning downwards so she could meet his averted gaze. "It's fine. I furrgive you Purriik." He visibly winced at the name, shifting even farther away from her, recoiling from the individual whom he had loved with all his heart in the past, and now felt nothing but guilt towards. Nepeta noticed his action, and frowned. "Hey, Pu-" remembering the way he had reacted, she changed his name mid-sentence. "Zuriik, are you alright?"

He looked away, anywhere but at her, nervous for a different reason than he might normally be. "No." Zuriik answered, having difficulties lying to Nepeta. He still loved her, he hoped, perhaps less than in the past, but he still wanted...he didn't know what he wanted. But he was sure he wouldn't be able to tell her a lie. Unfortunately. "I'm not okay."

Nepeta stepped slightly closer, staring up at him with concern shining in her eyes. "What's wrong Zuriik?" He glanced into those eyes, accidentally, but then unable to look away. He found himself simultaneously facing the familiar and the unfamiliar, getting drawn in and pulling away by those gazing orbs.

"I...got hurt." Zuriik muttered, lamentatious, piteous, steadily revealing to her the blue damage that had been done to him.

"What happened?" Nepeta asked, reaching out and taking his hand. That was enough, the final tap of a hammer in the dam of dis-care that had been erected like armor, hiding the nonphysical scar that now shone brightly against his dark grey skin. "Vriska happened." Zuriik said, but he didn't stop there. "She took me, and used me, made me weak and pitiful, turned me into nothing but a fucking toy for her to play with." He held her hand back, holding it tightly as he let everything go, as he showed her how he felt about what had happened. Yes, Vriska had raped Zuriik. But it was more than that, more than simply an act of pailing, it was betrayal. A traitorous tricking of his eyes and ears, of his senses and libido, wrapping him around her pinky and then breaking him. "She hurt me Nepeta, worse than I've ever been hurt before. She...scarred me. I...I don't know how to explain it. But...it fucking hurts. Worse than anything I've felt before."

The pity in her eyes was clear, frowning and staring at him, sympathetic and caring. "That's...horrible. What could she have done to hurt you this badly?"

And now the truth came again, from his lips before he had a chance to stop it. "She raped me." As with Feferi, Nepeta was aghast, eyes widening and jaw dropping. "Wh-what?"

"Vriska raped me." Zuriik repeated, letting go of her hand as if the damage incurred upon him made him fearful of her rejection, that what had happened to him would make him undesirable in Nepeta's eyes. "And the whole time, up until the end...I thought it was you." Wait...what? But he didn't have time to wonder about why he had revealed that little tidbit, he kept on telling, revealing things he might have rather kept secret, but unable to not tell her. "And that was the biggest betrayal. Cause...I wouldn't have minded if it was you. At all, that wasn't the problem. But I just...I got so caught up in everything, and even when I knew that it was Vriska, I wasn't able to stop myself from...from liking it. And it makes me fucking sick."

She just stared at him, completely stunned, a light blush covering her cheeks. "O-oh. Um...Zuriik...did...why would you have been...okay if it...had been me?" He blushed lightly back, despite his anger and detachment, embarrassment shining through.

"Um...b-because..." Zuriik stammered, sending a hand through his hair, an automatic nervous technique. He felt a strange sort of apathy, even though he was on the threshold of confessing his feelings to the girl he...loved? Did he still love Nepeta? After all that had happened to him, the emotional scar that he had obtained, the way he still winced when she called him 'Purriik', the betrayal and guilt that stormed through him when he thought about her; could he ever love her in the same way, when his affections had been influenced by another? Would he still chase after Nepeta, when Vriska had given him something glorious and wonderful, to the point where he would not only semi-gladly accept such a thing again, he might even search her out and request it?

Perhaps. He didn't know. But he had held onto the idea of being with the Liejon for such a long time, for her to maybe be his matesprit in the future. And Vriska...had altered that, changed the game, switched up the circumstances and the associated feelings. But Zuriik still felt that he wanted what he had always wanted. And now he had just the amount of removal and courage to tell her. "I-I like you. A...a lot. In...that way." He blushed deeper, as did she, slowly catching Zuriik's drift. "Nepeta...I'm in love with you."

The words left his mouth and seemed to hang in the air, followed by a dreadful nervous silence. She stared at him and he stared at her, then averted his eyes and she averted hers. "O-oh." came her reply, not what Zuriik might have hoped, but better than he expected, so far at least. "Purriik..." He didn't wince. A little surprising, but there was something...ridiculously authentic in her voice. He waited, on the edge of his metaphorical seat, anxious with every bit of him that wasn't scarred over, and the scar itself seemed to slightly dim, the soft glaring glow fading, allowing his heart to open its ears and listen to Nepeta. "I...I think I like you too." Yes, he thought, keep going, please. "I...I don't know if..." What? What don't you know, what aren't you sure of? "I can use the word...love though. That's...a very sturrong word. And...but I do like you!" He stopped thinking, and he could have sworn there was silence in his chest where his heartbeat should sound, every single cell in Zuriik's form dedicating themselves to listening, halting all bodily work to just hear Nepeta's words, their miniature metaphorical hands to their miniature metaphorical ears. "Y-you're...kind and...strong...and purrfectly pleasant to be around...and you're a very nice furriend." The word friend, he noticed, didn't affect him as much as he thought it might have. And he could quite easily tell that Nepeta was flustered. For a shipper, she did get rather nervous when confronted by romantic feelings. "But...I don't know if I...love you. A-and...that's mostly because...I've got my eye on someone purright now." Karkat. Zuriik knew. He was aware, he had known that for a while. And that was the biggest reason he hadn't revealed his flush-crush on Nepeta to her sooner. "I'm sorry. You're...a nice guy, really, you are. And I hope that...maybe you can...furrind someone...someone else fur you." Furrind? She's slipping up, Zuriik thought, her embarrassment causing her to force the cat puns. It certainly wasn't natural. And...it was rather nice of her to let him down easy. How...kind. And his heart continued to not beat, to exist in static silence, his mind similarly frozen and barely aware. His eyes moved back to her, catching in his gaze the way she looked away shyly, a tiny olive flush on her cheeks, rubbing her shoulder, and she looked upset. Likely because she didn't want her friend to be upset at her.

"It's fine." he said, soft and without negative emotion, words just...coming. "I...I understand, Nep, it's cool. You've...got a crush on Karkat. I figured it out a while ago." Zuriik shrugged, muscles spasming to cause the movement, not really purpose but rather impulse. "And...you know, I'd rather not lose you...as a friend. It isn't...like, matesprits or nothing." He chuckled, not really looking at her, but past her, away, just because he didn't feel like meeting her gaze. "I'd still like to...hang out with you, and stuff." It was all a lie, he knew that, and - glancing back at Nepeta - there was something in the way she looked at him, that made him think she knew his words weren't entirely truthful as well. But she smiled softly, her blush fading. Nepeta reached out and took his hand in both of hers, squeezing it gently. He smiled back, lightly and without an abundance of feeling. And then, she leaned up, on the tips of her toes, and kissed him on the lips. Zuriik's eyes widened, and he blinked in surprise. And said nothing, having nothing to say that he knew wouldn't come out stupid and idiotic, so no words left his mouth. She just blushed lightly again and let go of his hand, smiling and looking away. "I've...got to go now Purriik. I'll see you...later though, right?"

It took him a moment to regain his senses, but when he did, he nodded with a slowly returning grin. "Yeah." And then a moment later, he added "purromise", not teasing or playful, just kind of...friendly. She laughed, and he smiled wider, actually forgetting about Vriska for a little bit, just enjoying being with Nepeta. "Okay Purriik. Well, I do have to go. I'll see you around." And then she left, smiling over her shoulder, her little blue tail almost looking like it waved at him as she turned the corner and disappeared from view.


	3. Chapter 3

As black seafoam, Zuriik drifted. No one else was confessed to, but he began to return to his regular life, somewhat. He talked to Dave, and the rest of the humans too, but it was Strider that he found especial pleasure chatting with. He engaged his friends in conversation once again, though he completely avoided Vriska for obvious reasons. His scar was covered up under layers of acting, pretending nothing at all was wrong when he felt that everything was. And he acted fairly well, though his end of the conversations did falter somewhat in comparison to how it had been before the incident - as he found himself mentally referring to it over and over again. Freddy still bugged him for information about that night, Feferi still had the habit of sending worried-ish glanced his way, and Nepeta...was still Nepeta. Zuriik met with her a few times over the course of the next week or so, and she never brought up the information that he had told her. She treated him...as a friend, and he could almost detect a purposeful platonicity to her actions, as if she were trying to kindly remind him that she didn't, necessarily, love him. Or feel flushed for him, and strangely, he felt okay with that. The apathy was still there, the scar was still there, the lack of a will still somewhat existed; and all of these things made him slightly numb to everything. But there was only one thing that surprised him, the only change that caused him to pause and think and that penetrated through his emotional and mental barrier. The Pain did not return. His regular seizure-esque sessions of extreme agony and hazy visions of the future, that used to plague him almost daily, were now non-present in his life. Ever since...the fateful night Vriska had pailed him. It no longer affected him, the tingling that marked the beginning of suffering did not come, and in some ways, it scared him. And in others, it was a source of immense relief. No longer did he awaken with the impending Pain on the imminent horizon. But he knew quite plainly that it was not a coincidence. Zuriik didn't believe in coincidences. There had to be a correlation between what had happened to him and what now no longer happened to him. What exactly it was, he did not know, but yet it still happened, or rather, didn't.

It was with these thoughts that Zuriik found himself, meditating unsuccessfully in his chambers, cursing the Pain for not coming to take his own suffering away. To make the slowly burning scar that scalded the insides of his soul seem less bad, but yet it did not come. He sighed in frustration, opening his eyes and storming to his feet, crossing the room to his workbench, where he had been halfway through the process of disassembling Ω - the most generally powerful and least used of his scythes - before he had gotten bored and frustrated and given up. He reconstructed the weapon, his movements once again mechanical and yet quite suddenly full of anger. Vriska, his thoughts snarled. Vriska, his heart purred. Vriska, whispered the scar in a husky panging tone. Vriska, was the blade's metallic response. Vriska...he had to do something. Before he was corrupted by the insanity of the wound, of the regret and the guilt, of the pain and the rage; he needed vengeance and repentance...and justice. He needed justice. But yet there was a clamor of foolishness from inside, a protest within the war summit of his being. And it was not just his traitorous heart that stood against his judgement of Vriska, it was his common sense, his logical unanswered questions. With such important parties arguing against his idea of revenge, he might as well listen to them. And listen he did, contemplating and pondering...and making his decision, snapping the pole of Ω into place.

* * *

Vriska was walking along the corridor. Why? Unknown. Uncared. She was there, and that was all that mattered to Zuriik. He stood around the corner, almost hidden, his primary scythe - α - held loosely in his hand. As Serket's footsteps neared, his hand tightened its grip, and he anticipated a sneering remark or a turned head and an acknowledgment of his existence, but she walked right on by him, as if she didn't even notice he was there. And for a moment, he believed her semi-act. Then she stopped and half-turned, uttering from her lips a sentence meant likely as a dagger to his heart.

"Oh, hello Purriik. Didn't see you there." She laughed, not necessarily cruel, just...playful. Always playful. He would rather cruelty, rather she be a villain he could justify loathing, rather than just...a girl playing with him, toying with him. Which he immensely disliked, but...it didn't make her evil. Just a bit of an enormous freaking jerk. As he was sure to let her know with a calm voice that surprised even himself. "Yes, well I was standing in the corner. And you see me now...spiderbitch."

Vriska rolled her eyes at his words, but underneath that he could almost detect a hint of surprise, as if his usual choice to stand against her would be quelled by the wound inflicted to him. But the brightly burning scar only made his grip tighter on his scythe, holding the handle with his hand like a vice, his fingernails digging into his palm. She responded quickly enough, never one to let the last laugh go to someone else. "Yeah, whatever. What do you want, anyway?"

He stared, stoic, unmoving, like a statue, his nerves all poised in fury, ready to strike at the slightest sign of...something. Whether weakness...or antagonism...or something else entirely, he wasn't sure. But he was ready. "You're the one who started talking to me. But now that you mention it..." He stepped forward, and she countered by stepping back, both faces purposefully blank. 'She's just as good of a social actor as I am.' Zuriik noticed with a bit of surprise. 'What else are you hiding under that mask Vriska?'

He continued, taking another slow and precise step, causing her to step back as well. "I want to ask you something Vriska. And I want you to answer with complete and utter honesty."

She laughed it off, but he could tell she was nervous, there was an anxious edge to her voice, and the way her eyes glanced at and away from his scythe just screamed her desire to be out of the situation. "Right. Well, good luck with that. I'm a very busy troll, and I don't have time for little grubs and their stupid questions. Later Zuriik." She waved her hand in a dismissive fashion and moved to leave. And stopped a moment later when α's blade smashed into the wall where her head would have been if she had taken another step. She turned and looked at him as if he was crazy. And to be honest to himself, Zuriik was not entirely sure he wasn't.

"Sorry, but you're not leaving until you answer my question." His expression was cold as he stepped forward and she countered yet again, pressing her back against the wall in an attempt to recoil. Her hand went to her pocket, he noticed, likely to take hold of and prepare to roll her Fluorite Octet. He leaned in and placed his hand on the wall next to her, staring Vriska right in her good eye. She looked away, anger and a bit of fear on her face. "Fine." she mumbled, meeting his glance for but a moment. "What the fuck's your question?"

Zuriik smiled, though not out of enjoyment, just because it felt like the right thing to do, considering his attitude, dominant now, and she was the one currently at his mercy. It suddenly hit him that he had power over her, in this position. There was a possibility he could return her favor. This wasn't exactly a very popular hallway, and if something happened...no one would find out, in all likelihood. If she tried to roll, he could stop her, and even if she succeeded, he had six powerful scythes he could use to counter whatever her luck might bring. And...he could have his way with her. It would be even, it would be just, and little would judge him for it. An eye for an eye. Humiliation squared. He could do it. And the concept made him sick. He grabbed the handle of his scythe, noting her wince slightly, brace herself for his attack, but when he pulled the blade from the wall, he returned the weapon to his strife specibus instead, giving her a look that said 'You see? I'm not like you.' As if he was trying to prove something to her. Her, Vriska, of all people.

"My question?" he said out loud, as if he himself had forgotten it, stepping back and giving the ceruleanblood her space. Zuriik turned slightly, looking away for a short time, letting the inquiry seep back into his mind, thinking it over before staring back at Vriska. "Why?"

A pause, another one, as she stared back. "Why...what?"

"You know what."

"Do I now?"

Another game, oh joy. More playful words meant to make him uncomfortable, to show off the Scorpio's power over him, to place him below her. But he refused to buy into it, to let her win by skating around the facts, the event. And he made no other movements, no uncomfortable shifting as he restated. "Why did you rape me?"

"Oh, that." she said, in such a way that seemed rather uncaring, as if he had just asked her why she didn't clean up a Faygo spill, or why she had gone through his personal belongings. Something regular, something forgivable. Something that could be forgotten. And that got to him. Zuriik tried to hide the way his hand clenched slightly, the way his eyes flashed hot with anger, but she noticed, and she smiled. "Beats me. I thought it would be fun, and you seemed like a good pail." More dismissiveness. Would the game never end?

"That's all?"

"Yeah. What, you were expecting something more?"

He shrugged, not sure exactly what else to do. "I certain hoped for something more. A better reason for ruining my life, rather than just 'you thought it would be fun.'"

"Oh, I ruined your life now, did I?" She chuckled, speaking in very teasing and cruel tones. "Cheer up Zuriik, just because you lost your virginity to /me: doesn't ruin anything in the long run. I'm sure Nepeta will still like you just as much without it. In fact, I've given you a favor. Now you know how to treat the little Leijon."

Her words were like syrupy poison, calling back memories of...that night, and the corners of his vision went black with utter fury. "A...favor?" he growled, moving back and pushing her against the wall, his hand holding onto her shoulder, fingers digging tightly into her skin. "A fucking favor? Do you have any idea what the hell that shit made me feel? What you did to me? You fucked me over, more than just literally. You threw my whole being out of order, tore down every safeguard I have ever placed up. I can't meditate, I can't sleep, I can't even talk to Nepeta without feeling utterly guilty and self-loathing. Because you made me weak, you made me venerable, you took my trust and my affections and fucking destroyed them. And you think you've done me a fucking favor!?"

She wasn't afraid, he could see it in her eye, her hand moving out of her pocket to grab hold of his arm and attempt to push him away. She was angry. Why, Zuriik wondered, what the hell did she have to be angry about? But yet she was, she was absolutely livid, to his surprise, his confusion. "Well yeah! And why the fuck would you need to meditate anymore anyway! That's just some bullshit way you dealed with your pain. And remind me now, when was the last time you felt such agony, hm?"

He blinked, her question caught him off guard. He didn't need to say anything though, Vriska found the answer she was looking for, in his eyes, in his expression, somewhere, and she smiled. "I thought so. And you think it's my fault that Nepeta doesn't want you? That, because of me, she won't pity you? Face it Zuriik, she wouldn't want you either way. She's in love with someone else, and she doesn't even look at you in that way. You pay attention to her, more than she knows, you remember her every word, her every action. You notice everything, you do everything to stand out, to get her attention. And nothing works, because she will never fucking pity you like you do her!"

His eyes widened as realizations began to pour in, the obvious conclusions from the clear facts. Vriska's speech wasn't cruel, perhaps the words were, but the tone was exclusively upset, disappointed, angry, lamenting. Her words weren't pointed towards him to hurt him, they were pointed to tell him a truth. The truth. Her truth. And it hit him like a ton of rectangular building blocks. He half-pulled away, but her grip on his arm held him there now, kept his hand on her shoulder, and her eye shined with moisture, and she looked away, and he could find nowhere to look but at her. This wasn't an act, wasn't a ploy. Vriska was crying in front of him, practically confessing to him, and Zuriik had no idea what to do. The final puzzle piece smashed into place, and the mystery faded like fog in a strong breeze. He could see now, he could understand.

He stood there for a moment in shocked silence, and she kept her gaze facing downward. It took a while for him to regain his wits, but when he did, he asked the first stupid thing that came to mind. "When...when you kissed me...then...was that your first kiss?" She nodded, ever so slightly, but she did. "And...the rest of it?"

"My first time." she muttered, in a voice that was unclear in its associated emotions.

Another pause, during which Zuriik searched for something to say, something to fill the void of sound in the hallway. "You...did a really good job."

She laughed, but it wasn't entirely mirthful, more sad. "Yeah. You...you too."

Silence, soon broken. "I never really got a chance to kiss you back though." he added a little hastily.

"I guess not. But...you wouldn't want to."

He smiled, and something changed inside him. It was a long time coming, he supposed. About damn time. His mind protested, but it always did, always had fought his heart tooth and nail. And as always, he ignored the mental arguments, and listened to the lattermost organ. "Oh? Wouldn't I now? And why would that be?"

She looked up at him, a bit of surprised confusion present in her expression. "Um...what?" But she had done enough, she had moved her gaze back up, and given Zuriik just the opening he needed. He leaned in even closer, so close he could feel her surprised breath against his skin, her nose brushing against his, and he kissed her. Smack dab on the lips, pressing his against hers and kissing her, his conscious mind just plain giving up and retreating, allowing his heart to dictate his actions instead. She leaned back against the wall, although she did not struggle, did not push him away, not particularly kissing him back though either. Zuriik didn't keep track of time, so it could have been anywhere from seconds to minutes that the kiss was held, until Vriska broke it, pushing on his chest with both hands and severing the connection, a light cerulean blush painting her cheeks the same way a dark grey one painted the troll boy's. She said nothing, nor did he, not pushing another kiss, not pulling away, just being so very close to each other in the otherwise empty hallway.

Vriska spoke again first, eye darting to his, to catch his gaze, and then down, away, somewhere else, rather awkwardly. "You...didn't have to do that."

He shrugged lightly. "I guess I wanted to."

She looked at him again, as if trying to see through the skin, through the physical form of Zuriik in front of her, see the truth, get a grasp as to where the blackblood was coming from. "Wanted to? Why...?"

"Because I know what's it's like to not be loved...by the only person that matters." He kept attempting to look into her eye, gently placing his hand on her cheek, a soft smile pleasantly curving his lips. "To be ignored. And...I used to loathe you. Even before...we pailed." At the word 'wem, she started slightly, staring at him with a wide eye. Zuriik could feel her heart quicken pace, bearing witness to the rapidly deepening blush on her cheeks, the immense surprise at his change of heart, his seemingly drastic alteration of character. "Because...I couldn't understand you Vriska. I thought...that you were probably just evil. Malevolent, plain and simple. The things you did...frightened me. But now? I...I think I know why. I think I know where you've been coming from. I...feel you Vriska. I know your pain, I know your longing. I can...empathize." His words came as naturally as any words could ever come, smiling as he gazed into her good eye and her into his, the boy assured, the girl still incredibly surprised. "And...because I...understand...you, more than I did...I can love you. Can...will...and do. I...love you Vriska."

She stared, he gazed, and silence fell again. Zuriik leaned in, and for whatever reason, Vriska did too, their lips brushing together with an unfamiliar sort of awkwardness. His lips moved against hers, spelling out a truth he desired to share with her, the last thing he would ever need to say, two simple statements in the tiny space between them. "I forgive you...and I love you."

Apparently, she got the message, and her lips crashed against his, arms wrapping around and pulling him close, kissing him. Zuriik felt his heart skip a beat, and he grinned with utter elation into the kiss, leaning into it and kissing her back, shifting his lips against hers, drowned in the sweet taste and feeling his previous raging tension relax from the soft texture of the lips' embrace. He cupped her cheeks and turned his head, not having enough experience to do much more than his instincts told him to, to kiss her and allow the blueblood to take the lead if she pleased. The scar lit up as they kissed, and he noticed it again, noticed the soft emotional glow of cobalt on black that shone against the inside of his chest, and this time, he didn't recoil from the glow, but bathed in it, letting the love - and now it was love, he recognized, it was a closed wound that was forged in the stuff - caress his soul, healing all the broken and lonely parts of himself, holding Zuriik in a tight embrace not unlike Vriska's arms around him did, or her lips against his. She broke the kiss, and he could have whined with dismay, but it was not a lasting pause, as she kissed him again, over and over, long and passionate giving way to short and needy. Were they needy? They certainly were on Zuriik's end; and he met her lips as much as possible, a romantic sort of hunger driving him to kiss her back whenever he could. Though she was the one pressed up against the wall, it was clearly becoming apparent that Vriska was taking back the power in the makeout session, her own teasing attitude doing just that, teasing, and he would have thought it insufferable if he didn't find it so unfathomably endearing, and he was forced to end the shallow connections by submerging once again in a deep kiss. He held it, pressing his lips against hers, seemingly locking them together, and she made no struggles to break, holding it for just as long, though apparently not desiring to let Zuriik take the whole lead again. He felt a strange pressure and friction against his lips, a pleasurable sort of slithering, perplexed until he realized what it was. Her tongue, ah, and he parted his lips to let his own taste organ slither out to meet hers. They met, and they danced, rubbing against each other as they spiraled and played, conversing in touch and taste rather than sound or sight; Zuriik's eyes softly closing. He didn't need to see Vriska to acknowledge her and her beauty, he could feel her, taste her, smell her, and what a beauty it was the shone beyond his closed eyelids. It was odd to him, for a moment, that it took such a short time for his heart to open and see her for the first time as he should have all along: beautiful. But it was a long time coming, after all. The seeds of realization had been planted a while ago, when she had pailed him for the first time, and he smiled as he realized he had thought of it as 'the first time'. To be perfectly honest with himself, he wouldn't have minded terribly if this sloppy makeout session turned into both of their second times, as well as their second time together. Not that he cared too much if it didn't. He kissed her, and she kissed him, and Zuriik happily and yet gently pressed his body against Vriska's as they kissed. Whether they pailed or not, whether this lasted or not, whether he could ever sustain feelings of this sort for the girl who had wronged him, he couldn't find it in himself to care less. For now was now, and for now, Zuriik Taroql was horns over heels in love with Vriska Serket. And it felt fucking perfect.


	4. Chapter 4

Zuriik released a soft, hot breath of air against Vriska's skin, like a balloon slowly deflated from a single pinprick of injury. His hands, placed on her back as he hugged her, tightened their grip. He shuddered as her tongue flickered over the somewhat sensitive skin of his neck, the sensual stimulation sending something like lightning up and down his spine, making him arch his back slightly and press his body automatically closer to hers. Her arms were wrapped around him as well, but around his chest, as he held her around her midsection, and her fingers dragged on his back in a teasing, exciting way as she kissed and lightly licked his neck, every once in awhile brushing her fangs against his skin and causing a little "eep"ing reaction from him; which she must have found adorable, because she smiled wider and giggled airily before resuming her actions.

One hand moved, from his back under his arm - causing him to squirm as it excited the ticklish nerves in that area - and onto his chest, where it lay there, splayed and fingers outstretched, pushing him down farther into the chair he sat in. Vriska shifted in his lap, switching from turning her neck and dangling both legs off of one side to swinging the other leg over and straddling him. His fantastically deep blush became even darker, and his heart skipped a beat, shivering as she moved her hand farther downward. Her kisses moved upwards, across his cheek and to his ear, where she playfully nibbled the lobe. As Zuriik was distracted with that, her fingers deftly and dexterously pulled down the zipper of his trousers, exposing a v-shaped view of his briefs underneath. His head leaned back, and he let out a shuddering breath, as full of pleasure as it was full of nervousness, of instability. If Vriska couldn't detect that in the toning of his exhalation, she surely could from the way he was clinging to her, as she ran her tongue along his ear and whispered in what was plainly her most seductive voice. "I want you~"

As her breath hit his skin, Zuriik's shuddering worsened, and his lower jaw began to tremble. "V-V-Vris-ska." he stuttered out, not sure whether to pull her closer or push her away. "I-I want y-y-you too. B-b-but...V-Vris...p-please..."

"Please what?" she asked, grinning and taking hold of his earlobe between her teeth, pulling gently on it and even nibbling lightly on the soft skin; Zuriik gasping instantly and fluttering his eyes closed, tightly screwing them shut. "I'm not going to do much anything...unless you beg for it Zuriik." Her fingers at his crotch descended, two resting on the outside of his underwear, only a thin layer of fabric separating her touch from his most sensitive area. The digits pressed down, and the tiny pulse of pleasure was enough.

He whimpered pathetically, making a small choking noise in the back of his throat, sounding rather like a kicked woofbeast. "N-no." he whispered, barely audible, a suppressed sob ringing in Vriska ears, and she instantly pulled away, hands and lips and all, as he released her from his tight embrace simultaneously. They soon were as apart as two people could be while in their current position, Vriska still perched on his lap, looking down at him with her one eye full of fear and concern; Zuriik releasing small, shallow, almost gasping breaths, arms by his sides, slowly opening his eyes. He looked down and to the side, biting his lip with a shameful expression. "S-sorry." he mumbled, also incredibly quiet, his tone rather reflective of embarrassment.

"No...no, it's okay." she whispered, reaching down and taking hold of his zipper - a flash of pain shooting through her chest as she noticed the way he winced and almost recoiled when her hand moved near to that area - zipping his pants back up, in an attempt the heal the damage, to take back her eagerness, leaping into a situation that her lover was not prepared for. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I...I hurt you again...didn't I?"

He shrugged unsteadily, sitting up, his shuddering slowly but surely lessening. "N...no. Not...really. It isn't you Vriska...i-it's me" He gave her a soft, wobbly sort of smile, leaning in and hugging her tightly again, holding her close and burying his face in her neck, so she didn't have to see the way his expression dissolved into venerability and weakness, the way little shivers racked his body. But she could feel it, Vriska could feel all of it, and she wrapped her arms back around him and pulled him even closer, closing her eye and just embracing him.

It was a few minutes before he spoke again, doing so in a much calmer, much more stable voice that yet held an amount of instability, reaching up and lovingly twirling a few locks of hair around his fingers. "Vriska...if you...want me to be blunt...you did hurt me. Not now...but...then. And that...that pain has biased my experience. I won't take back...what I said earlier...that I love you...because I do, I do love you Vriska. And I...want you...still. More than that...I just want to be yours. If...if you'll have me."

"Zuriik." she whispered, but he cut her off in a soft voice. "P-please just...wait a moment. I've still got...something I need to tell you." Vriska nodded, resting her chin against the top of his head, letting his messy black hair tickle her face, and fill her nose with his scent, pleasant and yet strange, almost foreign.

He swallowed lightly, shifting ever so slightly against her, snuggling deeper into her arms. "I-I don't think...I'm r-ready. N-not to...to pail. Even...w-with someone as w-wonderfully lovely and...s-sexy...as you are. I...I can u-understand...if y-you're hesitant a-about...being m-matesprits...or e-even if you d-don't want t-to. C-cause I...I can't...t-truly satisfy y-you...or..."

"No." she whispered softly, wrapping her arms even tighter around him, holding the blackblooded troll boy close to her. "Zuriik...I'm flushed for you. The sex...doesn't matter, not to me. I'm fine to wait until you're...more comfortable with it...and I'll be more than happy...to just be with you...as your matesprit...even if we never pail. Please don't be sorry Zuriik...you haven't done anything wrong."

He was silent for the following few moments, but she could feel him smile against her neck, and the shape of his lips pressing to her skin in a little kiss. "O-okay." he whispered, in a voice so low that only she would be able to hear it. The two of them sat then, in silence, content in the presence and company of the other, simply satisfied with being there. It had only been a half hour since Zuriik had discovered Vriska's affections for him, since the two had kissed in the hallway, then migrated - hand in hand - to the latter's room. And now, they hugged each other tightly, both wrapped in a lover's embrace, cuddling without a word.

After a while, still hesitant to break the silence, speaking in a soft and quiet tone, Zuriik spoke. "Y-you can...well...I'd be okay...if you wanted to do...to do something. Like...really, I think I'd be comfortable enough...to do everything...and anything...that doesn't involve pailing. K-kisses, or...y-you know...anything."

Vriska smiled at his awkwardness, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Alright Zuriik. I think...we don't need to do anything tonight. Let's just...be, okay?"

"More than happy to." he mumbled in reply, letting out a soft, comfortable exhalation. Another silence descended, no less minded, the presence of the other troll making both of them feel content with the soundlessness, until speech was needed once again.

This time, it was the cobaltblood who broke the silence, rubbing her lover's back as she spoke. "Could...we...sleep together?" Vriska winced as she cursed her audial blunder, correcting herself only a moment later. "I mean...not pail, but sleep with each other, in the same recuperacoon, no sex, just..."

He laughed quietly, and that sound caused her to cease her struggle for words. "Vriska...I know what you mean. And...I think I'd love that." His voice assured her, and she smiled, moving slowly and unthreateningly off his lap; standing, stretching, and offering her hand to him. He took it gratefully - though unneeded, the gesture was certainly appreciated - and made his way to his feet as well. Once Zuriik was standing, the other troll entwined her fingers with his, holding his hand fully and pulling him towards her slime-filled slumbering device. He followed without a second thought, and though he found his own sudden trustfulness a little odd, he didn't question it. He trusted her. Absolutely, he did. Maybe he would pay for that trust in the future...but for now, he let himself trust. Trust and follow.

He was pulled back to consciousness from his dreamy state of flushed affection by Vriska letting go of his hand. She turned her head to smile at him - and he smiled back at her - before taking the hem of her shirt in her hands and pulling it off. Zuriik's eyes instantly darted to the recoopercoon, a blush relighting his cheeks with black blood. She laughed lightly at his reaction, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see her continue to undress. "Zuriik...you don't have to be so shy. It's nothing you haven't seen before, right?"

He shrugged, playing off his awkwardness with a smile and a comeback. "Hey, I was wearing a blindfold then. So...I actually haven't."

His blush deepened fantastically as he felt her arms wrap around him from behind and her nude body press up against his back. "Would you like to?" she asked in a quiet tone, and he was a little surprised at the lack of playfulness in her voice. It wasn't seductive, the way she inquired, nor was it teasing. It was just...honest, curious, and maybe a little nervous herself. It hit Zuriik then, the realization that he wasn't the only troll in the room who felt a little uncomfortable, who was a bit insecure in their inexperience and about themselves. It sent a wave of relief through his form, that thought, that truth, along with a re-affirmation of flushed affection that sent a little smile to his lips. Every second he spent with Vriska, he seemed to learn something new about her. Something wonderful, something relatable...something that made him fall even more deeply for her. Slowly and steadily...he was really loosing himself in that adoration, in that feeling of pity and of love.

"I-I think...I would." he replied, leaning ever so slightly back into her embrace.

"I'll expect you to return the favor though." Vriska added, with a tiny humorous breath, just a bit of a laugh, not a full one.

Zuriik chuckled back, though his blush did darken slightly. "But you've already seen me naked. It wouldn't be a new sight."

"Doesn't mean I wouldn't want to see it again. You've got a great body." she quipped back with a little laugh.

He blushed shyly, and nodded. "I'd be...comfortable with that. And you've got a great body too."

"Hey, don't sing my praises until you actually see me." She chuckled, releasing him from her embrace. Zuriik started to turn, but stopped as she playfully clucked her tongue. "Ah ah ah. Strip first, then turn around."

"Okay, okay." he laughed, raising his hands in a mock surrender. He began to remove his clothes: hoodie, shirt, pants, all came off without a moment of hesitation. His hand halted at the elastic of his underwear, but the nervousness only lasted for a short time. He pulled down his final article of clothing, and stood nude in front of her, his back to the other troll. "Can I turn around now?" he asked after a short silence, releasing a little awkward chuckle.

"You may." He did so, and both trolls looked at each other, in a nervous, awkward sort of examination. Zuriik's eyes focused on every inch of her skin, of the light grey tinged at some points with blue, cobalt staining her cheeks, lips and the edges of her eyes, his attention drawn momentarily to the cerulean buds that lay in the center of her budding rumble spheres, and the tiny flash of blue between her legs. His gaze traced her curves, the slightly visible ribs and lean figure, all the way up to her face, catching on each follicle of hair, meeting her eye for a second, noting the glasses with their single eyepatch-esque black lens that she had kept on. He stared at her face, at her expression, then down again, to her shoulder and the mechanical arm, the place where smooth metal fused almost grotesquely with her injured flesh. He glanced down at his own body, at the muscles that would likely be more impressive if he had been better fed, if he hadn't been forced to fend for himself. His skin was darker than hers, and in some places it was marred with new and old scars, with little closed wounds from his life on Alternia. When he looked back at Vriska, it was as if his eyes had been opened suddenly, as they had been less than an hour before. He noticed the tiny wounds that almost seemed to mirror his, the thinness of survival, the ragged look that was hidden to him before. She was so much like him that it hurt, and his mental focus was placed firmly on the soft abstract glow that existed on the inside of his chest. The scar that could not be seen. The wound that she had inflicted upon him. But he could see now that she had stabbed him with a double edged sword. Zuriik wasn't the only one in the room with such a scar.

Vriska wore one too. He was aware of that, and from the sight of that injury, of the wound that had no physical manifestation, so much else followed. He could see suddenly, the change, the origin of both scars at the same point in time. His words, said to her, said to the sinner Serket, from her point of view. He suddenly began to wonder, what if Nepeta had hated him as he had hated Vriska? Would it get to the point where his desire for her grew into a lust, into a need, into an action? Would he have raped her too?

Perhaps. And that was what scared him. But he and Vriska were different. Zuriik placed all of the blame on himself, automatically. If Nepeta had hated him, he would feel more responsible than angry. He would implode into himself and collapse, rather than lash out. But Vriska wasn't the same. She would lash out. She did lash out. In her rage and frustration and desire...she pailed him. She took control over him and used him, and broke him. And she regretted it. He could read her like he never could before, as both stood nude, staring at the other. Not because he had pierced her chest and found her heart, but because she had ripped it open and showed him.

He could feel a pain in his core, an unfathomable regret, and a desire of his own. He wanted her, to be hers, and to make this girl happy. She had suffered, she had been in pain, and whether or not she was now...he never wanted her to be in that position again. Zuriik loved her, and he pitied her...and he was more flushed for Vriska than he had ever been for anyone in his entire life. More utterly filled up with affection than any moment in his past. His flush-crush on Nepeta now seemed not only unimportant...but stupid. How could he ever have been so blind, so foolish? Zuriik wished he could take it back, every cruel word that had left his lips, every moment he had treated her with coldness. He knew that there was no way to change the past, that wishing to undo what had occurred was a fruitless effort. But he would damned if he wouldn't make it up to her.

"Y-you're...beautiful." he whispered, and her blush deepened.

"And you're handsome." she murmured in reply, taking a little cautious step towards him, that he mirrored until the two were almost touching.

Zuriik reached out, brushing her hair to the side and smiling softly. "You sleep with your glasses on?"

Vriska's visible eye flew to the side, and she shook her head. "Well...no, but..."

"Then...I'll take them off...for you." His fingers moved to her glasses, taking hold but not yet moving them off her face. He waited for a second or two, giving her the chance to intervene if she felt uncomfortable. But she made no moves to stop him, continuing to stare at the ground. He pulled it off, placing the glasses on a nearby table and shifting his gaze to Vriska again. Now that both eyes were visible, he could see what her left one looked like under the patch. Six pupils stared back at him, moving with her other eye, though he could tell she could not see out of it. The iris and retina were indistinguishable, and both were colored a dull, lifeless blue-grey. The skin around the eye was darker, seemingly burnt, and he faintly recalled a conversation with Terezi where the tealblood had bragged about the revenge exacted upon Vriska, of the cue ball that had detonated in her face. She had lost her sight in one eye, her left arm, and her Vision Eightfold. He remembered considering that loss...adequate, acceptable, just...and even laughing a bit at it. And now, in her room, the two trolls nude and exposed to one another...he felt terrible. Zuriik was ashamed for treating Vriska, this being of complete beauty in front of him, with anything less than adoration. It seemed to him that he had found yet another reason to make it up to her...to make everything up to her.

He touched her left cheek with a smile that was soft and full of emotion, staring into her eyes - both blind and visioned - and leaning in to kiss her. His lips pressed to hers and she took no pause before kissing him back, in throwing an arm around his neck to pull him closer to her. The kiss lasted for a while, for as long as both trolls could hold their breath, and then they broke it, seemingly simultaneously. Zuriik rested his forehead against hers and spoke but a single word in a quiet voice that was barely more than a breath. "Recuperacoon?"

She nodded, replying with an equally breathy "yeah", and removing her arm from around his neck. Their two bodies pulled away, but neither felt regret or awkward disappointment. Two smiles graced two pairs of lips as both black and blue held hands and stepped into the cocoon with the slickly, sticky, slimy substance that filled it. Zuriik shivered as his legs were submerged in sopor, then his pelvis, then the slime reached up to his chest. It was cold, not entirely due to temperature, but it always had a...coldness to him, like a dead body's embrace in liquid form. The stuff creeped him out, needless to say. But it was a lot more bearable with Vriska there next to him, shoulder to shoulder in the slightly cramped recuperacoon.

"The slime's pretty watered down." she noted, picking up a handful of the stuff, letting it drip through her fingers with an expression of slight disgust.

"It shouldn't be a problem for me. I never use the stuff anyways." he replied, making himself somewhat comfortable, stretching out his legs a bit and scooting closer to Vriska, resting his head on her shoulder.

"Wow...your dreams must suck." She didn't add a laugh, it was a genuine concern, and he just shrugged lightly in response, uttering a quiet and directionless "yeah".

Silence fell again, for a while, but neither seemed particularly eager to fall asleep. The female troll let out a small sigh, and gently pushed Zuriik off of her. He started slightly, having spaced out in the liquid drug that surrounded them, and stared at her with a strange sort of ambivalent apathy as she straddled his waist and placed her hands on his shoulders. "I love you." she said, rather suddenly, and with an incredible amount of feeling in her tone, as if to attempt to strongly drive the point across.

He looked up at her, slightly confused, but then he smiled, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer, his mouth by her ear and visa versa. "I love you too Vriska. I love you so so much...I can't even describe it." He could feel a tension calm inside her, something just under the skin unwinding and becoming relaxed.

She nuzzled lightly against him, mumbling out "do you promise?"

"I do." he whispered, holding her close to him, not at all caring that they were both nude or surrounded by the disgusting slime. "I promise that I love you. I swear on it, that I love you...and that I will always love you. From here until the end of time...I will...and do...love you with all my heart."

He could hear an instability in her breath and her voice, an emotional catch that threatened to overcome into something bigger. "I've...never been loved before."

He turned his head, kissing her cheek with a soft smile, his own emotion rising up and spilling over, on the brink of consuming him with tears and bliss, all at once. "W-well...you are now, Vriska."

They held each other tightly, until she uttered three words in a small voice that almost seemed unsure of itself. "Be my matesprit?"

"N-nothing would make m-me happier." he whispered, black tears of a hundred simultaneous positive feelings flowing down his cheeks and dripping into the sickly green fluid. "M-matesprits." he simply confirmed, and she repeated in a soft tone that was as full of joy as it was of amazement. "Matesprits."

"F-forever and e-ever?" he asked, his lip wobbling as he tried to keep the sobs that racked his chest from escaping.

"As long as we both shall live." she murmured, reciting something that John had once told her about human matrimonial ceremonies. "I swear I'll be faithful to you."

"A-and I swear...th-that I'll d-do my best t-to be w-worth you." Zuriik smiled through his tears and sniffled lightly, attempting to clear the moisture from his eyes and the sobs from his voice.

"You don't need to try that hard." Vriska smiled too, rubbing his back lightly and kindly. "You're already way out of my league."

"A-and you're way out of mine." He chuckled softly, closing his eyes and letting himself dissolve into her arms, melting with from warmth of the embrace and the heat of the affection that burned inside him like the safest and most pleasant wildfire that had ever existed. "I love you V-Vriska. More than life itself...I love you."

"Love you too Zuriik. So much more than I can ever say." she mumbled, before falling silent except for the deep breathing of a sleeping troll. The two lovers held each other as slumber claimed the pair, remaining cuddling while they slept, the slime up to their necks and a smile on each of their lips. And within only a few minutes of mutual sleep, two vascular pumps began to alter their pattern, until there was little distinction between them. Two hearts, beating as one, love channeled through the conduit of two scars across their own chests. And as they slept, the horrors of nightmares that plagued the sopor-deficient were warded off by the colors entwined. Black and blue. Blue and black. As one. And it seemed too perfect not to last.


	5. Chapter 5

Freddy sat down at the desk in his room and cracked his knuckles, pulling a flashlight-pen out of his sylladex. He stared down at the old journal that lay in front of him, collecting his thoughts for a good moment before opening the stained book. The journal had been his since he was a wriggler, and he used to use it to record star formations and other important events. But now, since Sgrub had come into his life, it had been converted into a documentation of everything himself and his friends knew about the game. As well as all of what had happened to every one of the sixteen asteroid-bound trolls (including the non-present Aradia). He flipped to the first page, and began to write.

Status check of me and my friends:

Aradia: Still knot hear.

Danavel: Gotten better, he's actually doing pretty well without sopor. Definitely knot as crazy as he was.

Equius: I'm staying away from the guy, he gives me the creeps.

Eridan: Tried to show me a magic trick and blue up one of my mini spaceships. Said it was supposed two just disappear. Ugh. I think I might hate him.

Feferi: Her usual cheerful self.

Freddy (ME!): Doing good, four the most part.

Gamzee: Tons of fun, though he's bin missing four the past day or too.

Kanaya: She made me a pretty, neon green scarf the other day. In return, I gave her a model of the Alternian sky at night. I think she liked it.

Karkat: Grumpy dick, same as always.

Nepeta: I think something's bothering her. Not sure though, more on that when I figure it out.

Romina: As beautiful as she's ever bean. 3

Sollux: Doom and gloom, he's kind of boringly depressed.

Tavros: Taut me how two play Fiduspawn, and I actually beet him once! Just once though, and I think he let me win anyways.

Terezi: Gigglelicious. We haven't talked a hole lot, butt being the only tealbloods on the asteroid, we have sum stuff in common.

Vriska: Suspiciously subdued, I think she's planning something. Keeping an eye on her.

Zuriik: ...

Freddy removed the pen from paper and leaned back in his chair with a sigh. His moirail...was confusing him. Zuriik was depressed, and unstable, he could tell that. Why was more of the mystery. Something had happened that left the blackblood in an utterly destroyed state. Come to think of it, he hadn't really looked much around the room where he found Zuriik, he was too busy fussing over his pale brother. Maybe it would have been a good idea to actually pay attention instead of being too involved in his own world to notice much anything or anyone else, he angrily reprimanded himself.

"Furreddy?" He jumped in his chair and turned around quickly, enough to see the oliveblood who had walked into his room in the middle of his train of thought and proved his metal point.

"Nepeta." he hastily affirmed, turning in his chair so he could face her and sit between the female troll and his journal, straddling the seat backwards and snapping a smile onto his lips to try and make it seem like his troubled mind was less so. "Yes, hi, what can I do for you?"

She looked upset, he noted with a little bit of surprise, suddenly noticing the expression on her face and the little mannerisms - eyes averting themselves with near automation, glancing down and to the side, her hands clasped in front of her, breathing out of the sides of her mouth rather than normally, the anxious swishing of her blue tail - that practically screamed uncomfortability. Though Freddy had always been a little deaf in relation to such social cues, he had gotten better over the sweeps. Thanks to his moirail, he remembered with a sudden pang of pale sadness. Nepeta was silent for a little while, then she sat down on one of Freddy's beanbag chairs and sighed, crossing her legs and keeping her hands in her lap. The tealblood realized that she might have been waiting for him to offer a seat, or ask her to sit, though of course it was a little too late to attempt to do so now, considering that the offer would just be redundant. Another silence fell, and Freddy prompted himself to break it, but this quiet seemed like the other troll was thinking, rather than her waiting for something from him.

"It's about Purriik." she stated, in a nervous, hesitant sort of way.

"My moirail." he added, not sure exactly why he did so, the words practically leapt from his lips.

"Yes." Silence, then speech, quiet and submissive, regretful, sad. "I'm sorry."

Freddy's eyes narrowed in suspicion and an eyebrow raised in confusion. "For what?"

Her own eyes, previously firmly staring at the floor, now snapped up and connected her gaze to his in a fiercely emotional look that made him reversely mirror her action and avert his own gaze. "Did you know he was furlushed for me?"

"Yeah." he mumbled, suddenly feeling a little guilty about it, though he really had no idea why. "He is my moirail after all...and he told me a long while ago that he was." He forced himself to make eye contact again, before asking "how did you find out though?"

"Beclaws he told me." She smiled slightly, leaning back a bit in the comfortable seat. "But if I think about it...it fureally shouldn't have been that hard to figure out."

Freddy let out a small laugh, copying her movement and shifting into a more open position. "Oh, yup indeedy. Zuriik mighta been kind of a cold bastard sometimes, but he wasn't the most emotionally secretive guy."

Nepeta giggled as well, her anxious expression softening, and her overall tenseness almost visibly morphing to a more relaxed state. It almost seemed like that was the end of the low, that from then on their conversation was all smiles and jokes and friendly talk between two trolls. But her smile soon faded, and her eye became floorbound again. "That isn't the only thing Purriik told me."

He sensed the change in mood quite quickly - he might have been socially inept, but he wasn't totally clueless - and the smile dropped off his lips as well. "Oh." he murmured softly, waiting for her to continue with a slight feeling of dreadful anticipation.

"He...confessed what happened to him. What's making him so depurressed."

"And that was...?"

"Vwriskers raped him."

Freddy's world crashed. He didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't that. He opened his mouth to speak, but it was as if the news had stolen all air from his lungs. He sat there, stunned, shocked, horrified. His best friend, his moirail, the most emotionally sensitive and vulnerable troll he knew had been subjected to humiliation and harm by the cobalt arachnid herself. A week and a half ago. A week and a half, and his moirail hadn't told him. That alone sent his heart into frenzied palpitations of panic. It was that bad, that terrifyingly harmful. Zuriik told Freddy everything, and the same exchange was made in return, and that didn't leave out personal embarrassment or weaknesses. Both laid bare their souls to the other, but the thing that happened that night was so awful that the blackblood wasn't even comfortable telling his moirail. Freddy had suspected and worried about something bad since the moment he found him there in that room, alone and seeming like nothing more than the shell of a troll, but he had guiltily not pursued it. At least not as much as he should. He leaned down, turning in his chair and placing his head in his hands, hanging it in shame.

"Oh god." he mumbled with an incredibly regretful tone. "I'm an awful moirail."

He felt a kind hand on his shoulder, and the not at all calming presence of Nepeta right behind him. "I've seen you two, you do a purreally good job of meowking him happy."

"But that doesn't change the fact that I've been to concerned about flirting with my flush-crush to even fucking notice Zuriik!" he bemoaned, closing his eyes and sighing with hopeless self-directed disappointment. "Or...notice him enough to figure it out. To push him until he confessed, to try and make things better. I...I failed. And now who knows where he is! He almost committed suicide when he thought Nepeta was rejecting him, now he just went through the ultimate humiliation in his mind and..." Freddy stopped talking when he realized that Nepeta was actually in the room with him as he made his thoughts vocal. "Fuck."

"He...he did that?" she asked, a tone of equal parts sadness and surprise in her voice.

"He tried." he replied quietly, sighing again and sitting up slightly. "Zuriik's always been...dependent on the opinions of others. He never really had much...self esteem. He was always so concerned with what everyone thought of him, so much so that he practically made himself into a cold 'hero', just so he could stand out." Freddy felt like crying, like breaking down into tears at this admission of his own pale failure. And just at the thought of his blood brother in pain, in the constant suffering he knew Zuriik had fought through his entire life. "Especially...especially you. He was so utterly convinced...that you were the only person who could ever love him. Even before he met you...he saw you as his matesprit in a vision...and you were both happy. He fell in love with that...with you. A future together, with you...was the only thing he had to hold on to all those long sweeps. Through the Pain and the isolation, he kept that hope in his mind. But...when he found out you were flushed for Karkat...it broke his heart. Because...to him...you were the only person who he could ever be happy with. And it hurt him. He thought he'd be alone for the rest of his life...because you loved another."

"Furreddy..." She leaned down and hugged him, and he hugged her back, still rather on the verge of shattering into a thousand teary shards of melted teal glass. "I'm so sorry." she whispered again, and he shook his head softly in a near instantaneous response.

"It isn't your fault. Please...don't apologize. I fucked this up...he fucked this up...and it has nothing to do with you Nepeta." His tone was a little colder than he intended, but the oliveblood didn't make any motions to loosen her grip. Freddy was about to tell her to stop, to push her away, to fight back against the care and kindness and explode. But it was all him, he realized, he was angry at himself. And his moirail. It really didn't have anything to do with her. So he was silent, letting the arms of a friend around him quell the storm that raged in his blue-green heart, until the chaos faded into calmness. "I'm sorry. That...was a pretty cruel thing to say." he mumbled, once his stability had been achieved again.

She let go then, a smile of utter softness on her lips, sitting down on the floor and patting an empty spot next to her as a sort of invitation. Freddy recognized the motion as a purposeful action, a silent way to say, "see, no pile, no feelings jam, but I still want to talk to you." He nodded his appreciation and understanding, taking a seat on the ground. "So...Nepeta...how is my moirail doing?"

She looked at him curiously, opening her mouth as if to ask something, then stopping, seeming to mentally answer her own question. Nepeta sighed, looking down at her crossed legs and twiddling fingers. "Pawt well, furom what I could see. He fureals really really guilty...about what happened to him, I'm purretty sure of that."

"Sounds like Zuriik." mumbled Freddy quietly, his head hanging slightly as well. "He always did take responsibility for things that weren't his fault."

She nodded sadly, and silence descended, an awkward, frustrated void. The tealblood glanced up finally, a question he had wanted to ask for a little while manifesting itself enough for a real inquiry. "You care about him...don't you?" A beat of hesitation, and another nod from Nepeta. "But you're not..."

"Furlushed fur him...no."

"And he knows?"

"Yes."

"You told him?"

"...yes."

"And how'd he take it?"

"Well."

He raised an eyebrow at this, a little suprised by that. "Really? How well?"

She shifted a little awkwardly, and Freddy realized he had been grilling her for information, somewhat. "He...said how he still pawnted to be furiends, and that it was okay that I wasn't furlushed fur him."

He paused, unsure, feeling rather out of himself, and sighed, for the umpteenth time in their encounter. "I'm sorry Nepeta...I'm just...I have no idea what the fuck to do. This is all...all happening a little faster than I'm comfortable with."

He felt her pat his shoulder, and glanced up at her smiling expression. "It's fine Fureddy, I'd purrobably be the same if somepawdy did that to Equihiss."

He shrugged, but his expression brightened somewhat. "Yeah, or you'd be screaming down the hallways for Vriska's head."

She laughed, and so did he, and they practically fell over with laughter. The joke wasn't even that funny, but both of them needed the laugh, after such grim tidings. The darkness was still there, in both of their awarenesses, but they quite desperately desired to forget it, at least for the moment.

It was directly outside of the door to Freddy's hive that the eavesdropped news of Zuriik's situation reached the awareness of another troll. They listened, and their gleeful grin faded in an instant. Righteous fury filled them, but they stayed until the conversation dissolved into laughter. They left then, heading down the hallway towards Vriska's room, with their blind gaze set on only one goal. Justice would fall, and a head would roll. And Terezi knew exactly whose life should and would be forfeit.

Zuriik slept, nestled against Vriska's equally slumbering form, both trolls wrapped in each other's arms and a liquid cover of green slime. A sound, the click of a lock and the creek of a door, both soft and quiet, made the blackblood shift slightly, his many self-taught instincts screaming at him to awaken - though the slimy drug around him dulled such internal sounds greatly. It was only when the metallic sound of a blade being drawn from its sheath sound dangerously close to him did his eyelids fly open. As he had practiced a hundred times on Alternia, the noise triggered his think pan into firing a burst of adrenaline down his spine that spread through his entire body in a millisecond. He burst from the slime and out the recuperacoon, his mental process still struggling to keep up with his physical reaction. He collided with a physical entity - the apparent threat - and knocked it to the ground as he and whatever or whoever the other thing was struggled for dominance. They rolled along the floor, thrown by the impact, spreading slime everywhere. By the time his mind caught up with his body, Zuriik had pinned the...something, to the ground. He shook his head lightly, squinting in the low light at...

"Terezi" he mumbled in tired confusion, blinking at the now slime covered tealblood. "What..." And then his think pan slowly began to put together the scene. He was naked, pinning Terezi to the ground of Vriska's room, and she looked as surprised as he was. Not to mention the fact that he was dripping green gunk all over her. "What?" he repeated in utter perplexed bafflement.

"Zuriik, get the fuck off of me." she ordered, in an emotionless yet also slightly unsure, as if the situation had taken all of the logic out of her. He complied rather hastily, turning to search for and then grab his pants, throwing them on over his sticky green-tinged legs. "Ugh, this stuff is disgusting." Terezi added, wiping a bit of lime slime off her black shirt with its teal Libra sign and standing up.

"Yeah." He stood as well, staring at her, the slime in his system still making it hard for him to think straight. Thankfully, its effects were wearing off with every passing second. "Tez, why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same question." she snapped, and her tone rather surprised him. She took a step forward, picking his cane up off the floor, which he noticed was partially unsheathed, a metal blade glinting in the near lightlessness of the room. She fully sheathed it again, sniffing a few times to better make out the scene. "Zuriik, why are you nude, and sharing a recuperacoon with...Vriska?" The cobalblood's name was spoken through gritted teeth with utter furious conviction, as if spitting forth a dark curse into the room.

He shrugged, trying to piece together how much he should tell her, how much of his situation he was sure of himself. Unable to figure out an explanation, he simply replied "you first."

She let out a quick and frustrated breath, holding her cane to make it easier to unsheathe, Zuriik noticing that and moving a foot back distinctively into a subtle fighting stance. "Justice" was the single word she spoke that echoed into the gloom of the midnight shadows.

"Justice" he echoed, with suspicion, with anticipation, with curiosity and fear of the answer to his question. "Who exactly is the focus of your justice?"

"Give a wild fucking guess."

"Me." he guessed, hoping to all things even somewhat divine that he was right, but knowing in his heart that he was not.

"Partially."

Zuriik paused, and stepped between Terezi and the pod with Vriska slumbering inside. "I won't let you hurt her."

"Why?" she growled, stepping forwards and boring holes in him with a furious glare from her unseeing eyes. "Why would you protect her, when you're the one she hurt!?"

"Because that isn't important!"

"Isn't important? She fucking raped you and you are defending her actions because they aren't important?"

"Not compared to what she has done, at least!" It was a fairly flimsy defense, they both knew it, but Zuriik refused to back down. "She crippled Tavros, manipulated Sollux into killing Aradia and blinded you. Her situation with me doesn't hold a candle in comparison to any of those things, nor does it concern you at all. It isn't your goddamn business."

"My business is the carrying out of justice. Vriska's gone too far this time, and she needs to pay for her actions." Terezi snapped back, her knuckles turning teal from how hard she clenched her cane.

"Too far? She killed your friend, how is pailing me any greater an offense?! How is..." Zuriik sighed softly, casting a glance over his shoulder at the still strangely peaceful face of his sleeping matesprit. A small smile graced his lips, and he took a step back, closer to the recuperacoon, before looking back at Terezi. "How does my...rape mean more to you than that? How can I be the final straw that 'forced you to just now incur final justice'? I mean...look at me." He gestured down to himself. "Or...smell at me, whatever. But I'm...I'm more of a mutant than Karkat is, at least his blood is still considered a possible shade. Me? I'm the first blackblood in recorded history. Whoopdie fucking doo. Hell...even my piece of shit ancestor didn't have the same hue as me. I'm a freak, and the laws of Alternian justice don't fucking apply to me anyway. It shouldn't matter to you that she hurt me, because to your precious laws and order, I don't even exist. I'm not worth retribution. And besides...you've only known me for...what, a month? Two? I can't be worth someone's life to you...especially not hers."

"You're an innocent." she retorted, fury still burning strong in her tone. "Aradia's death was part of a big revenge cycle, but Vriska had no motive for forcing herself on you! Least of all manipulating your emotions like that while doing so! As for Alternian justice, Alternia's long gone. The specific laws don't matter as much as justice does, and justice means that if a troll rapes another troll for no reason, she deserves to die!"

"She did have a reason! /I/ was her fucking motivation!" That stopped her, those words caused Terezi to freeze and stiffen, anger practically vanishing to make way for stunned silence.

"...what?" she asked, sounding a tad bit more disbelieving than she did confused.

"I was her reason." Zuriik repeated, his eyes naturally moving downward to avoid looking at the blind girl, perhaps shamefully, perhaps just emotionally. "You're a smart girl Terezi, I'm sure you can put two and two together."

She didn't say anything for a while, and he got the definitive feeling that it wasn't because she didn't know the solution to the particular puzzle he had presented to her, but because she didn't want to believe it. "She liked you." Terezi finally stated.

He chuckled, sitting down and leaning back against the recuperacoon. "I think both of us would say it was a lot more than just like. She was flushed for me."

She scoffed in disbelief, turning in apparent disgust of the idea, her back to Zuriik and Vriska. "She raped her flush-crush. That's a pretty sick display of affection."

"Maybe. With two normal trolls in a normal romantic situation, probably, yeah. But neither of us...were...or are normal. I can't speak for Vriska as much...nor would she want me to anyways. But me? I can speak for me. And I am not a normal troll. A stable troll. I'm a blackblooded freak with a romantic obsession for a girl who doesn't think of me as more than a friend. I was...and I guess still am a bit...stubborn in my views of the world, of right and wrong...of people. You know my past opinion of Vriska, what I used to think about her. Before...she did what she did to me. And I won't lie...what she did hurt. And it was wrong. But...if she hadn't done that...I never would have changed those views. I always would have believed in the righteousness of blind justice - no offence." She shrugged at the remark, and he continued. "I would have never stopped being 'flushed'," he made air quotes with four fingers as the word left his lips, "for Nepeta. And...in the course of me tearing into myself with regret and self-loathing...I might have done the same thing to her."

"You wouldn't though." Terezi insisted, her arms crossed, her back still turned. "You aren't that kind of person Zuriik."

"Aren't I?" That hit a nerve for him, and he rose, glaring at the tealblood. "And are you now the divine authority on character? Have you known me long enough to say for certain that in my deep well of moral righteousness and virtue that I would never harm a living being so long as I remained alive and breathing? Well, guess what, you're wrong!" Zuriik was on the brink of shouting now, and his fingers twitched on the verge of wrathful action and dug their nails into his palm. "You don't fucking know me Terezi, and you never have! Because I have kept myself so well hidden that I didn't even know me. I have buried who or whatever the fuck I might be under an ocean of false strength and coldness. I am a lie. Plain and simple, a liar living his lie every day of his miserable pathetic life. I have worn the mask of the warrior, of strength and invincibility, never letting anyone see under that mask until she," he pointed back at Vriska, still somehow sleeping through all of the commotion so close to her, "tore it from my fucking face and forced me to be venerable. Me, who was so scared to rely on anyone that he threw up a wall around his heart that kept out even his moirail. And I was broken, not because she hurt me...but because I was forced to look at myself. I was forced to face the fact that I can be weak, that I am weak, that I have to rely on people for support, that I can be broken. I had to be broken. I was blind to my problems, taking either too much blame or not enough of it. But never responsibility, just blame. It was my fault that something happened, but I focused too much on that I fucked up, instead of looking forward at what I could do to fix it. And you know what? I'm glad Vriska raped me. Not that anyone did...but that she did. That I could be broken, and then fixed again. She killed my heart and revived it with a kiss. And I'm thankful. Because I needed that. I needed to be weak and pathetic by the hand of someone who cared. I don't want her to suffer because she stabilized me, I want her to be rewarded. She hurt me...and I love her for that. And I will protect her with my life." He stared at Terezi, who remained stoically unmoving, as if the Libra had frozen into an ignoring statue. Zuriik smiled softly, and added: "I don't care what she's done, but she does."

That got a reaction. She turned, glancing blindly back at him with a detectable ounce of surprise. He continued to speak, taking a step towards her. "She regrets what she did. I know she does. I've seen that remorse in her eye. The blood on Vriska's hands tears her apart inside. I know...because I've felt the same way. I know what it's like to take a life for the sake of survival, what kind of thing that does to someone. The internal excuses, the unending guilt, the natural tendency to find loopholes in your sin. Think of any and all ways that what you did was not your fault. That's what I did. That's...what we both did."

Terezi said nothing for a while, letting that sink in, and Zuriik was silent as well, taking a seat in front of the recupercoon again. When she finally spoke, it was with a generally dazed tone. "You've taken a life before."

It wasn't particularly posed as a question, but he felt the need to answer her statement nonetheless. "Yeah. I've taken a few. But only one...on purpose." He sighed, leaning back against the sleep-pod. "I've never told anyone about it, not even Freddy. It's about time I did though." The blackblood pursed his lips, and took a deep breath, in and out, and began.

"It was a while ago, when I was still on Alternia. My first...sweep of living on my own, barely surviving, but still managing to find the will and the ability to keep on going. I was out hunting and scavenging, searching for food or whatever else I could find. I found a patch of berry bushes, and was gathering as much of them as I could carry and fit in my pockets, and was wandering away from my cave, farther than I had ever been. Everything was going well, no problems whatsoever, until I cut myself on a bit of bramble. It hurt, of course, but I didn't think much of it. There were no trolls out there, so I had no reason to be afraid that someone would spot my freak blood and cull me or anything. That is...until I actually did find a troll; an adult and a purpleblood no less. She must have been lost or something, or just stopped to pick some berries, and we ran into each other. She looked at me, and at the blood dripping from the cut on my hand, and got this surprised and...maybe even fearful look on her face. She took this...this curved, jagged blade out and grabbed me, trying to...I don't even know what. Maybe she had tried to kill me, or kidnap me, or...something else, I don't remember clearly. It was all a blur, then the next thing I know...I'm holding my scythe, she's on the ground...and blood is everywhere. A giant pool of purple, with a tiny bit of black here and there. I did the only thing I could think of...and ran."

Again, nothing was said for a time, and then he continued. "I didn't go out for nearly a week afterward, just sat on the floor of my cave and tried not to think about the troll I had just murdered. The blood on my hands. The way her lifeless eyes had looked, staring up into the sky without direction or acknowledgement. The fact that, because of me, there was one less person in the world."

"It wasn't your fault." Terezi said softly.

"That's what I thought too. That was the only way I could look at myself anymore without seeing a killer. It was self-defense, it was me or her, I had no choice, et cetera, et cetera. I never really got over it though...that dead purpleblood still haunts my nightmares." He stared up at her, feeling once again both jealousy and pity for her blind (in more than once sense of the word) ignorance. "It doesn't matter who's fault it was, does it? To you, to justice, I killed a troll. To me, to empathy, I protected myself. But answer this, should I be punished for what I did?"

Her answer was nigh-instantaneous. "No, of course not."

"Why?"

That stopped her, caused her pause, and that in turn caused him to chuckle mirthlessly. "See? This is what I'm talking about. I killed that troll because I had no choice, right? The same thing happened to Vriska more times than she can likely count. Kill or die, over and over and over. How long do you think you would last under that sort of morbid pressure?"

She had to think about that for a moment. "I-I don't know."

"And that's why you aren't fit to judge Vriska." he replied in a low and forceful tone.

"Then who is?" she snapped irately.

He shrugged. "I am, I suppose. And...if I'm wrong about her...if she is responsible for what she did...and if she doesn't regret it...then you'll be the first to know."

Terezi nodded slowly. "You mean...if she's guilty."

"If. But she isn't."

"But if she is-"

"Then I'll tell you. And then..."

"Justice."

"Yeah. Pretty much."

She nodded again, sighed, and turned to leave, pausing for a moment and 'looking' back at the other troll. "Be careful Zuriik. Don't her hurt anyone. Especially not you."

He smiled and nodded, standing up and crossing the space between them to place a hand on her shoulder. "I'll keep an eye on her, I promise."

She scoffed lightly, but smiled back. "Was that a blind joke?"

"Maybe it was." They both laughed quietly, and Terezi moved to leave, taking hold of the doorknob. She was already halfway out of the room when Zuriik spoke again. "Thanks Tez."

She didn't answer, just closed the door and walked away. The room was silent again, and the blackblood stood still for a moment, then turned back to the recupercoon. He stopped and stared, then sighed softly. "How long have you been awake?"

Vriska, poking her head slightly out of the slime, stared back at him. "For a while."

"And how much did you hear?"

"A lot." She looked slightly down, her one good eye glazed over from the effects of the sopor. "I'm sorry."

He smiled, stripping off his pants and leaning in to press a tiny unfamiliar yet assuring kiss to her forehead. "It's your room Vriska. If there's an argument here, you deserve to hear it."

She shook her head and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him close in the recupercoon hole, grumbling back "that's not what I'm apologizing for."

"Okay, okay." he wheezed out, his ribs pressed uncomfortably against the hard 'coon's surface. "Can't breathe, please wait till I get in to hug me."

"Oh, sorry." She quickly let go, and he took a deep breath, smiling to reassure her before stepping back into the slime bath. "You ready now?"

Zuriik chuckled, and wrapped his arms around her, nodding and embracing her. "Mhm."

She smiled, hugging him back and nuzzling against his cheek, pressing a soft slimy kiss to his cheek. "Ugh." he playfully mumbled, wiping the gunk off his cheek with a hand covered in slime, which did nothing but make Vriska giggle softly.

"I love you Zury." she whispered, closing her eyes and relaxing against him.

He closed his eyes as well, melting into her arms. "I love you too...um...Vriska."

"What, no playful nickname?" Vriska mumbled teasingly.

"I'll think of something."

"You better. I'd hate...to be the only one of us...that doesn't have one."

He just nodded against her and began to fall into slumber again. She was passed out, he barely noticed through his sleepiness, due to her deep breathing and lack of movement. But that was all he could tell before the darkness of peaceful unconsciousness claimed him again.

Across the asteroid at a shared time of Zuriik and Terezi's argument, the computer lab was undergoing somewhat of a kerfuffle. And soon, in a huff, a male troll exited the aftermath, his scarf shifting in the air behind him from the breeze of his quick pace. Yet, considering his situation, it seemed not appropriately swift enough. It is not usual for one to exit a crime scene as the perpetrator carrying with them an air of one who has been slighted. Then again, Eridan Ampora wasn't much of a usual troll, in the eyes of one who has examined only the median average of their race. Though for his violet blood, his behavior and attitude was not completely unheard of. Nor was it completely or in any way an unfamiliar concept. If Eridan - storming off without a life to follow him - was the only threat on the rock, it wouldn't be an issue to deal with him. But as it turned out, he wasn't. Because it was at that time, that coincidental and darkly dangerous time, that two purpleblood were suffering from simultaneous withdrawal. Sopor, such a useful and needed resource for the trolls, was dwindling in content. Danavel, the one of two beginning to go mad from their lack of beloved green slime, was thankful enough to have already gone through a withdrawal, right before he had been transported through space, time and impossibility to the present asteroid. He knew what to do then, how to cope, how insanity would rot his mind with incessant and infernal whispers of morbid acts; and he chained himself in his room with the last shreds of his sanity, screaming curses of maternal copulation to the darkness. Gamzee, however, the second of the two, was not so fortunate to be mentally prepared. He quickly slipped into madness, and such madness simply cannot be satisfied with a static state. It, and thus he, desired company, and action. Glorious, blasphemous action. The fecal matter was in the process of sending itself through the whirling device, and it seemed to have no qualms about spreading one hell of a mess along the way.

Woo, longest chapter yet! Might be a bit of a hiatus on the next one, as the school year draws ever nearer. Stay tuned though, as the shit continues to hit the fan with deadly force. And more of it happens. It being shit. Also, you might notice that this chapter's paragraph spacing is a bit different than the previous one's. That's because I'm changing the format of the writing software I'm using, and I'm too lazy to go back and make them all the same way. Sorry, but I think it looks better this way, and all future chapters will be this same format. That's all for the updates, I'll see you when the next chapter comes out. So, eventually.


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